1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to sights for hand-held weapons such as rifles, pistols and bows, and more particularly to such sights having a means for illuminating the sight in low-light and dark conditions.
2. History of Related Art
Many attempts have been made to provide a sight for guns and bows that is usable under daylight, low light, and night conditions. One attempt to provide an aiming sight usable under both day and night conditions is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,763 issued Jan. 31, 1978, to Stanley L. Carts, Jr. The Carts sight proposes the use of hollow light-absorbing fibers, or solid fibers having a transparent core, that are coated with a light-absorbing material, such as black glass, to keep light contained within the fiber. A small dot is observable only when the axis of the fiber is aligned within one milliradian of a line from the user's eye to the radiation source. This requirement makes the sight difficult to use because of the time that may be required to "find" the dot source and then align the weapon with the target without losing sight of the dot.
The use of light-gathering fluorescent fibers in a bow sight is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,861 issued Aug. 22, 1995, to Paul M. LoRocco, the inventor of the present invention. In his earlier invention, Mr. LoRocco discovered that the use of light-gathering fluorescent fibers dramatically increased the amount of light emitted from an end of the fiber, in both daylight and low light conditions. More recently, several arrangements for adapting light-gathering fluorescent fibers to a variety of weapon sights is disclosed in the present inventor's co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/506,722, filed Jul. 26, 1965. However, in both of the above-disclosed sight arrangements, if a natural light source is not available, such as under nighttime conditions, the end of the fiber is not noticeably visible.
Attempts to provide a weapon sight suitable for use under both daylight and nighttime conditions include reticles illuminated by an artificial light source, such as a small incandescent bulb, and light-emitting diodes. These arrangements require a source of electrical power such as batteries, rendering the device cumbersome and susceptible to failure if the electrical power source is interrupted. Other attempts to provide a weapon sight for use under day or night conditions includes the use of small phosphorescent dots or other shapes painted directly onto a portion of the sight. This latter arrangement often compromises the visibility of the sight under bright light conditions.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the problems set forth above. It is desirable to have a sight for weapons that is readily visible in the brightness of day or the darkness of night. It is also desirable to have such a sight that is easy to see and hold in a user's line of vision while aligning the weapon with a target. Furthermore, it is desirable to have such a weapon sight that does not require a powered light source.